Learning Russian is not easy for everyone. It contains a variety of spelling norms, rules and exceptions. When writing the combination “despite that”, pay attention to what part of speech it is expressed. This can be a preposition or a homonymous gerund. It is important to understand in which cases the turnover is written separately, and in which together.

Derivative prepositions: rules in Russian

Prepositions in Russian are important. They indicate the dependence of nouns, pronouns and numerals on other words. This applies to sentences and phrases. A part of speech has no meaning of its own, so a preposition can only serve. When using it, it is important to know how to spell “despite that.” The correct use of a derived preposition involves various ways of placing it in a sentence.

Derivative prepositions are transferred from other parts of speech. At the same time, they lose their morphological characteristics: words are necessary to indicate dependence on other words, they cannot be declined by case, they do not have gender and number, they are not members of a sentence. When writing, take into account the rules of punctuation marks.

Spelling the combination “despite”

If you need to show that a person has given in, use the pretext “despite that.” Its synonyms are the words “despite”, “not taking into account”. You can determine the part of speech by making a substitution. Example: “Despite the fact that all the streets were covered with snow, the children were at every step.” Replace the preposition with the word “in spite of.” The result is a sentence: “Despite the snow that covered all the streets, the children were at every step.”

The test is carried out using a question. A preposition is a service part of speech, so a question cannot be asked. If after the question you can get an answer, then the word is another part of speech. To determine the writing rules, pay attention to the following points:

• The combined spelling with “not” indicates that the sentence contains a preposition: “Despite the fatigue, we quickly climbed to the top of the mountain.”
• Concessive meaning, when it can be replaced with the word “despite”: “Despite (despite) the offense, I spoke calmly.”
• The prefix “not” cannot be omitted. It is incorrect to use the word “depending on”.
• There is no replacement with another part of speech, for example, a verb.

The preposition “despite that” cannot be removed from the sentence, since its meaning is lost. If the prefix disappears during pronunciation, it will become unclear what the person wants to say. This can be seen in some sentences:

• They excitedly talked about their lives, despite the fact that they had not seen each other for ages. When changed to the word “looking” the meaning is lost.
• Vera decided to visit the establishment, despite the fact that she was sorely short of time.

The reverse is not always separated by commas. To place punctuation marks correctly, you need to pay attention to the placement of the preposition. It can appear at the beginning or at the end of a sentence, so it is separated by commas on one or both sides.

Punctuation under circumstances

Sentences often use adverbial members that contain derivative prepositions. Among them: thanks to, despite, as a result of, like. Isolation occurs to emphasize the meaning of what is being said. Example: “Despite the fact that there were many curious people on the street, the village seemed deserted and silent. He decided to go to training, despite the fact that the doctors forbade it.”

When using the preposition “despite the fact that,” a comma is not used if it comes immediately after the verb. Punctuation is only required before the word "what". Differences in punctuation depend on word order. Example: “He looked despite the fact that his eyes hurt a lot.”

Writing a derived preposition

The part of speech helps make the sentence colorful and indicates that the action was performed in spite of something. Among the features are the following writing rules:

1. Derivative prepositions consist of one or more words.
2. You need to remember the spelling, you can check it in a spelling dictionary.
3. When used, one preposition is replaced by another synonymous one.

The preposition “despite” is formed from the gerund. When writing, take into account the possibility of opposition. The particle “not” has become a prefix. Unlike the gerund, it is written together with a preposition. It is separated by commas, just like the participial phrase.

The Russian language is rightfully considered difficult to learn, because where else can you see such a variety of spelling norms, rules and exceptions? And for foreigners, the most difficult topic is prepositions. In fact, the spelling rules are quite simple, you just need to remember which ones are written together or separately, and which ones are written with a hyphen.

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The problem arises later when a homonymous part of speech (for example, a noun with a preposition) is placed next to it, the spelling of which is radically different. The most striking example of such a “neighborhood” is the preposition “despite” and the homonymous gerund “despite”. Let's figure out when a turn is written together and when separately.

Spelling of the preposition “despite”

Preposition "despite" used in the meaning of concession. It can be replaced with the following synonyms: “despite”, “contrary”, “not taking into account”. Accordingly, the simplest way to help determine whether it is a preposition is to mentally replace the phrase with any other equivalent. For example:

• Despite the rain, I went for a walk with the dog.
• In spite of the rain I went for a walk with the dog.

You can also try asking a question about this phrase. In Russian, prepositions are auxiliary parts of speech, which means it will be impossible to ask them a question. For example:

• Despite ( for what?) no matter what they continued to go towards their goal.
• Despite ( for what?) in bad weather the animals asked to go outside.

And also a sure sign that the phrase in front of us is a verbal preposition is its invariability. We cannot omit the prefix "not". For example:

• They felt comfortable with each other, despite the fact that they had not seen each other for so many years.
• They were comfortable with each other despite that that they haven't seen each other for so many years.
• She set aside a few minutes to talk, despite her workload.
• She took a few minutes to talk, looking at workload.

As you can see, when we omit the prefix, the whole meaning of the sentence is lost.

It is very important to remember that the phrase with the preposition “despite” always separated by commas. If it is at the beginning or end of a sentence, then the comma is placed on one side, if in the middle - on both sides.

Spelling the participle “in spite of”

The participle “in spite of” is used in its direct meaning, that is, literally “without looking at something.” Accordingly, it can be replaced in the sentence synonymous phrase “without looking”. For example:

• I typed the text of the report without looking at the screen.
• I typed the text of the report, not looking to the screen.

Since the gerund is not a functional part of speech, you can ask the question about it: “Doing what?” or “Having done what?”, thereby determining that this phrase is not a verbal preposition “despite.”

• I talked about my discovery, ( doing what?) despite the commission.
• Friends shared news among themselves, ( doing what?) despite the others.

The participle is also additional action to the main verb, therefore, there is one more way to distinguish it from a preposition. It is necessary to find the main verb and correlate it with the phrase. For example:

You can also omit the particle “not” from the participle - then the meaning of the sentence will be reversed. For example:

• The children ran around the yard without looking around.
• The children were running around the yard, depending on both sides.

The participle is always written separately with the negative particle “not” and is always separated by commas: if the phrase is at the beginning or end of the sentence, then it is separated by a comma on only one side, if in the middle - on both sides.

Additions are isolated less frequently than definitions and circumstances, but those that are added by the preposition “despite” are usually separated by commas. The same goes for “no matter what”: commas are usually needed.

“Despite that...” is separated by commas

On both sides

1. If we have before us an addition attached by the preposition “despite,” then it is isolated, except in rare cases when the addition forms an indivisible combination with the predicate.

• Despite the nervous atmosphere in the courtroom, he remained calm and polite.
• Today, despite the frost, competitions in playing gorodki took place.

2. If this combination is “in spite of everything”, it is also separated by commas (the same exception).

• In the morning, no matter what, you need to go to the dacha.
• Emelyanov, despite everything, wanted to congratulate Sonya.

3. Sometimes the preposition “despite” is included in the subordinating conjunction and is involved in the formation of a complex sentence. Where should you put commas in this case? Most often there should be three of them: before “despite” and before “that”, and then at the end of the subordinate clause.

• We walked for a long time, but were not tired, despite the fact that the weather was not favorable for the walk.
• Our class, despite the fact that it was formed only two years ago, is rightfully considered the most friendly in the school.

Do you know..

Which option is correct?
(according to last week’s statistics, only 36% answered correctly)

ALTHOUGH, union

Syntactic constructions beginning with the conjunction “despite the fact that” are distinguished by punctuation marks. In this case, the first punctuation mark can be placed either before a compound conjunction or between its parts (before the word “what”). For factors influencing punctuation, see Appendix 3.

The viewer was supposed to believe that in front of him was a man who remained unharmed, although currents of extraordinary strength pass through it. Y. Olesha, Spectacles. Although Yagozin was the brainchild of St. Petersburg, from the day he was born he breathed the air of Nevsky Prospekt and sucked the milk of the Okhten nurse; nevertheless, he was all about speed and nimbleness. D. Grigorovich, Careerist. We started running along the edge of the shore itself, and everything turned out great, although in some places the ice broke and water came out. D. Mamin-Sibiryak, Bad Comrade. He, although I was in an intoxicating haze of beer and wine, I felt that it was somewhat indecent to be in the presence of an outside witness in such a form and with such an action. N. Gogol, Nevsky Prospekt.

@ In fiction there are examples of placing a comma both before the word “despite” and before the word “what”: The horse was starting to get tired, and he was dripping with sweat, although he was constantly waist-deep in snow. A. Pushkin, Blizzard. The botanical garden was managed by an excellent scientific director and did not allow any disorder, although spent most of his time practicing with a microscope in a special glass booth located in the main greenhouse. V. Garshin, attalea premnceps.